Battle for Brest
Encyclopedia
The Battle for Brest was one of the fiercest battles fought during Operation Cobra
, the Allied breakout of Normandy which began on 27 July 1944, during the Battle of Normandy
during World War II
.
Part of the Allied plan for the invasion of mainland Europe called for the capture of port facilities, in order to ensure the timely delivery of the enormous amount of war materiel required to supply the invading Allied forces (it was estimated that the 37 Allied divisions to be on the continent by September 1944 would need 26,000 tons of supplies each day). The main port the Allied forces hoped to seize and put into their service was Brest
, in northwestern France.
began planning an eventual "Invasion of Western Europe" to be put into effect when and if they joined the war. American and Canadian troops would be moved from US to England (as long as the United Kingdom
was still in the war) until an Allied invasion could be mounted into the continent. A major issue was of course how to supply the invasion army with the tens of thousands of tons of materiel it would need after it landed. The capture of ports in the European Atlantic coast was a necessity, and the most suitable ones were clear invasion objectives. The capture of these port facilities was deemed crucial, because the lack of supplies would easily strand an invading army. For the initial phase of the battle, large artificial ports (Mulberry Harbors
) would be erected by the beaches, but they had limited tonnage unloading capabilities, and were considered just as a contingency until real ports could be captured and put into service.
Suitable ports could be found along the northern coast of France, across the English Channel
which would be crossed by the invading armies, in particular the port of Brest
in Brittany
, for a long time the main French Fleet harbor in the Atlantic coast and the westernmost port in France. The Allied strategists considered even possible that, after its capture, supplies could arrive directly from the US to Brest, bypassing England and reaching the Allied Armies moving east, towards Germany, much faster.
Other ports across the English Channel were Saint Malo, Lorient
, and Saint Nazaire in Brittany and Cherbourg and Le Havre
in Normandy (which would eventually be selected as the Invasion area). Operation Sledgehammer
, the capture of Cherbourg, had been considered by the Allies, but it was cancelled after the disastrous 1942 Dieppe Raid
. It was decided that a direct attack to a port from the sea was not an option.
The Germans, realizing this, however, began building fortifications around these ports earlier in the war through their Organization Todt
, as part of the Atlantic Wall
concept. Some of these ports were major U-boat
bases as well, and had bomb-proof concrete sub pens built. These fortifications had been surviving Allied air strikes for some time.
Soon after Normandy was invaded, the Mulberries were towed from England and deployed in the French coast. Unfortunately for the Allies, one of them was destroyed after less than two weeks in a storm. Supplies were then mainly landed directly via the beaches, but this process was not as efficient.
Cherbourg
, at the tip of the Contentin Peninsula in Normandy, was captured by the Americans who landed in Utah Beach
, but before surrendering the German garrison destroyed its ports facilities. It was so far the only major port in the Allied invasion area.
Soon after, the Brittany peninsula
was isolated by a north-south breakthrough accomplished by George S. Patton
's Third United States Army during Operation Cobra
, and US VIII Corps was diverted into Brittany to capture Brest and secure the northern flank of the breakthrough.
Wehrmacht
troops trapped in Brittany retreated to the fortified ports in the peninsula as US Third Army troops moved in and surrounded them. The Brest garrison, Festung Brest (lit. "Fortress Brest" - the way the German propaganda
referred to surrounded cities), was put under the command of General der Fallschirmtruppe
Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke
, a paratroop veteran of Afrika Korps
. The forces consisted of the 2nd Fallschirmjäger-Division, 266th Infantry Division, 344th Infantry Division and other Wehrmacht elements, totaling some 40,000 troops.
The old fortress city of Saint-Malo
was captured by 83rd Infantry Division ("Ohio") on 17 August, but its small port facilities were sabotaged by the defenders. A German garrison stationed at nearby Cézembre
Island only surrendered after days of heavy shelling by warships and strong air strikes, when their naval guns were already disabled. The aerial bombing of the island marked one of the first uses of napalm
bombs. It was clear that the Germans would deny the Allies the use of French ports as long as possible, by defending the fortresses built around them and damaging the docks as much as possible.
Brest was reached by American troops on 7 August 1944.
Brest was surrounded and eventually stormed by the U.S. VIII Corps
. The fight proved extremely difficult, as the German garrison was well entrenched and partially made up of elite Fallschirmjäger
(paratrooper
s) forces.
The German paratroopers lived up to their reputation, as the Allies had experienced previously in battles such as Monte Cassino
. Whilst some less capable units surrendered quite easily, the Fallschirmjäger defended their ground under considerable odds, heavy shelling, air strikes and American assaults. The attackers had heavy losses for every small advance they made into the city.
As per their military doctrine, the Americans tried to use their superior artillery firepower and air superiority to overcome the defenders, instead of fighting them hand-to-hand. The Germans, on their side, had stocked a considerable amount of ammunition for the defense of the city and had weapons of all calibers (from light flak to naval guns) dug in fortifications and in pillboxes
.
The fighting was intense, the troops moving house to house. The fortifications (both French and German built) proved very difficult to overcome, and heavy barrages were fired by the artillery on both sides.
Eventually the old city of Brest was razed to the ground during the battle. Only some old medieval stone-built fortifications were left standing.
General Ramcke surrendered the city on 19 September 1944 to the Americans after rendering useless the port facilities. These would not be repaired in time to help the war effort as it was hoped. By this time, Paris
had already been liberated by the Allied Armies, and Operation Market-Garden was already under way in the Netherlands
.
The costly capture of Brest resulted in the decision to only surround the remaining German-occupied ports in France with the exception of those that could be captured from the march, instead of storming them in a set-piece battle. The exception was Le Havre, which was taken by the British 2nd Army on 12 September 1944. Some of these Breton ports surrendered only by 9 May 1945, one day after Victory in Europe Day
.
earlier than expected, but by September 1944 supplies were beginning to run short.
Cherbourg was the only port that was repaired in time to be used. The port's capacity was approximately 2,000 tons a day in mid-July and 12,000 tons by August 1944.
Decision was made to favor the British forces under Sir Bernard Law Montgomery
by reducing the supplies to other forces, including Patton's. The unsuccessful Operation Market Garden
launched by Montgomery soon after, however, resulted in the Allies' rapid advance stalling and allowed the Germans to reorganize and even counterattack (the Battle of the Bulge
). By then, however, the port of Antwerp in Belgium was supplying the Allies.
After the war, the West German government paid reparations to civilians in Brest who had been killed, starved, or left homeless.
before the winter of 1944-45, bringing the Third Reich to an earlier collapse.
On the other hand, further developments in World War II indicated that the logistics of carrying supplies across France by land was also a great obstacle, due to insufficient numbers of trucks and the destruction of the railroad network (see Red Ball Express
).
The delay in the invasion of Europe (postponed from 1943 to 1944 due to the lack of LCTs
) had allowed the Germans time to reinforce their coastal defense system (known as the "Atlantic Wall
"). The ports' fortifications made the reality the soldiers found around them much different in 1944 than the one the planners foresaw back in 1942, when they believed these ports could be captured relatively intact and used accordingly.
The reason Ramcke asked, was that he was stalling for time, as in one of the bunker rooms he had a radio operator frantically sending out his last report from Fortress Brest (which included a number of award recommendations). In the end he was able to keep the Americans busy long enough that they did not discover the radio room until the dispatch had been sent.
Operation Cobra
Operation Cobra was the codename for an offensive launched by the First United States Army seven weeks after the D-Day landings, during the Normandy Campaign of World War II...
, the Allied breakout of Normandy which began on 27 July 1944, during the Battle of Normandy
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Part of the Allied plan for the invasion of mainland Europe called for the capture of port facilities, in order to ensure the timely delivery of the enormous amount of war materiel required to supply the invading Allied forces (it was estimated that the 37 Allied divisions to be on the continent by September 1944 would need 26,000 tons of supplies each day). The main port the Allied forces hoped to seize and put into their service was Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
, in northwestern France.
The ports issue
Early in the war, after the Fall of France in 1940, the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
began planning an eventual "Invasion of Western Europe" to be put into effect when and if they joined the war. American and Canadian troops would be moved from US to England (as long as the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
was still in the war) until an Allied invasion could be mounted into the continent. A major issue was of course how to supply the invasion army with the tens of thousands of tons of materiel it would need after it landed. The capture of ports in the European Atlantic coast was a necessity, and the most suitable ones were clear invasion objectives. The capture of these port facilities was deemed crucial, because the lack of supplies would easily strand an invading army. For the initial phase of the battle, large artificial ports (Mulberry Harbors
Mulberry harbour
A Mulberry harbour was a British type of temporary harbour developed in World War II to offload cargo on the beaches during the Allied invasion of Normandy....
) would be erected by the beaches, but they had limited tonnage unloading capabilities, and were considered just as a contingency until real ports could be captured and put into service.
Suitable ports could be found along the northern coast of France, across the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
which would be crossed by the invading armies, in particular the port of Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
in Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
, for a long time the main French Fleet harbor in the Atlantic coast and the westernmost port in France. The Allied strategists considered even possible that, after its capture, supplies could arrive directly from the US to Brest, bypassing England and reaching the Allied Armies moving east, towards Germany, much faster.
Other ports across the English Channel were Saint Malo, Lorient
Lorient
Lorient, or L'Orient, is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.-History:At the beginning of the 17th century, merchants who were trading with India had established warehouses in Port-Louis...
, and Saint Nazaire in Brittany and Cherbourg and Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
in Normandy (which would eventually be selected as the Invasion area). Operation Sledgehammer
Operation Sledgehammer
Operation Sledgehammer was a World War II Allied plan for a cross-Channel invasion of Europe, as the first step in helping to reduce pressure on the Soviet Red Army by establishing a Second Front...
, the capture of Cherbourg, had been considered by the Allies, but it was cancelled after the disastrous 1942 Dieppe Raid
Dieppe Raid
The Dieppe Raid, also known as the Battle of Dieppe, Operation Rutter or later on Operation Jubilee, during the Second World War, was an Allied attack on the German-occupied port of Dieppe on the northern coast of France on 19 August 1942. The assault began at 5:00 AM and by 10:50 AM the Allied...
. It was decided that a direct attack to a port from the sea was not an option.
The Germans, realizing this, however, began building fortifications around these ports earlier in the war through their Organization Todt
Organisation Todt
The Todt Organisation, was a Third Reich civil and military engineering group in Germany named after its founder, Fritz Todt, an engineer and senior Nazi figure...
, as part of the Atlantic Wall
Atlantic Wall
The Atlantic Wall was an extensive system of coastal fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the western coast of Europe as a defense against an anticipated Allied invasion of the mainland continent from Great Britain.-History:On March 23, 1942 Führer Directive Number 40...
concept. Some of these ports were major U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
bases as well, and had bomb-proof concrete sub pens built. These fortifications had been surviving Allied air strikes for some time.
Prelude
Cherbourg
Cherbourg-Octeville
-Main sights:* La Glacerie has a race track.* The Cité de la Mer is a large museum devoted to scientific and historical aspects of maritime subjects.* Cherbourg Basilica* Jardin botanique de la Roche Fauconnière, a private botanical garden.* Le Trident theatre...
, at the tip of the Contentin Peninsula in Normandy, was captured by the Americans who landed in Utah Beach
Utah Beach
Utah Beach was the code name for the right flank, or westernmost, of the Allied landing beaches during the D-Day invasion of Normandy, as part of Operation Overlord on 6 June 1944...
, but before surrendering the German garrison destroyed its ports facilities. It was so far the only major port in the Allied invasion area.
Soon after, the Brittany peninsula
Peninsula
A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....
was isolated by a north-south breakthrough accomplished by George S. Patton
George S. Patton
George Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...
's Third United States Army during Operation Cobra
Operation Cobra
Operation Cobra was the codename for an offensive launched by the First United States Army seven weeks after the D-Day landings, during the Normandy Campaign of World War II...
, and US VIII Corps was diverted into Brittany to capture Brest and secure the northern flank of the breakthrough.
Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
troops trapped in Brittany retreated to the fortified ports in the peninsula as US Third Army troops moved in and surrounded them. The Brest garrison, Festung Brest (lit. "Fortress Brest" - the way the German propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
referred to surrounded cities), was put under the command of General der Fallschirmtruppe
General (Germany)
General is presently the highest rank of the German Army and Luftwaffe . It is the equivalent to the rank of Admiral in the German Navy .-Early history:...
Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke
Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke
Hermann-Bernhard "Gerhard" Ramcke was a German general. He was a recipient of the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Swords, Oak Leaves, and Diamonds, one of only 27 people in the German military so decorated...
, a paratroop veteran of Afrika Korps
Afrika Korps
The German Africa Corps , or the Afrika Korps as it was popularly called, was the German expeditionary force in Libya and Tunisia during the North African Campaign of World War II...
. The forces consisted of the 2nd Fallschirmjäger-Division, 266th Infantry Division, 344th Infantry Division and other Wehrmacht elements, totaling some 40,000 troops.
The old fortress city of Saint-Malo
Saint-Malo
Saint-Malo is a walled port city in Brittany in northwestern France on the English Channel. It is a sub-prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine.-Demographics:The population can increase to up to 200,000 in the summer tourist season...
was captured by 83rd Infantry Division ("Ohio") on 17 August, but its small port facilities were sabotaged by the defenders. A German garrison stationed at nearby Cézembre
Cézembre
Cézembre is an island in the Ille-et-Vilaine département of France, near Saint-Malo. The island is uninhabited, with a surface area of approximately 18 hectares , a length of 750 meters, and a width of 300 meters....
Island only surrendered after days of heavy shelling by warships and strong air strikes, when their naval guns were already disabled. The aerial bombing of the island marked one of the first uses of napalm
Napalm
Napalm is a thickening/gelling agent generally mixed with gasoline or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device, primarily as an anti-personnel weapon...
bombs. It was clear that the Germans would deny the Allies the use of French ports as long as possible, by defending the fortresses built around them and damaging the docks as much as possible.
Brest was reached by American troops on 7 August 1944.
The battle
VIII Corps (United States)
The U.S. VIII Corps was a corps of the United States Army that saw service during various times over a fifty-year period during the twentieth century. The VIII Corps was organized 26–29 November 1918 in the Regular Army in France and demobilized on 20 April 1919. The VIII Corps was soon...
. The fight proved extremely difficult, as the German garrison was well entrenched and partially made up of elite Fallschirmjäger
Fallschirmjäger
are German paratroopers. Together with the Gebirgsjäger they are perceived as the elite infantry units of the German Army....
(paratrooper
Paratrooper
Paratroopers are soldiers trained in parachuting and generally operate as part of an airborne force.Paratroopers are used for tactical advantage as they can be inserted into the battlefield from the air, thereby allowing them to be positioned in areas not accessible by land...
s) forces.
Battle of Monte Cassino
The Battle of Monte Cassino was a costly series of four battles during World War II, fought by the Allies against Germans and Italians with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome.In the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was being anchored by Germans...
. Whilst some less capable units surrendered quite easily, the Fallschirmjäger defended their ground under considerable odds, heavy shelling, air strikes and American assaults. The attackers had heavy losses for every small advance they made into the city.
As per their military doctrine, the Americans tried to use their superior artillery firepower and air superiority to overcome the defenders, instead of fighting them hand-to-hand. The Germans, on their side, had stocked a considerable amount of ammunition for the defense of the city and had weapons of all calibers (from light flak to naval guns) dug in fortifications and in pillboxes
Blockhouse
In military science, a blockhouse is a small, isolated fort in the form of a single building. It serves as a defensive strong point against any enemy that does not possess siege equipment or, in modern times, artillery...
.
The fighting was intense, the troops moving house to house. The fortifications (both French and German built) proved very difficult to overcome, and heavy barrages were fired by the artillery on both sides.
Eventually the old city of Brest was razed to the ground during the battle. Only some old medieval stone-built fortifications were left standing.
General Ramcke surrendered the city on 19 September 1944 to the Americans after rendering useless the port facilities. These would not be repaired in time to help the war effort as it was hoped. By this time, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
had already been liberated by the Allied Armies, and Operation Market-Garden was already under way in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
.
The costly capture of Brest resulted in the decision to only surround the remaining German-occupied ports in France with the exception of those that could be captured from the march, instead of storming them in a set-piece battle. The exception was Le Havre, which was taken by the British 2nd Army on 12 September 1944. Some of these Breton ports surrendered only by 9 May 1945, one day after Victory in Europe Day
Victory in Europe Day
Victory in Europe Day commemorates 8 May 1945 , the date when the World War II Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. The formal surrender of the occupying German forces in the Channel Islands was not...
.
Aftermath
The whole Overlord campaign developed somewhat differently than originally planned. Patton's US Third Army's quick advance allowed the Liberation of ParisLiberation of Paris
The Liberation of Paris took place during World War II from 19 August 1944 until the surrender of the occupying German garrison on August 25th. It could be regarded by some as the last battle in the Battle for Normandy, though that really ended with the crushing of the Wehrmacht forces between the...
earlier than expected, but by September 1944 supplies were beginning to run short.
Cherbourg was the only port that was repaired in time to be used. The port's capacity was approximately 2,000 tons a day in mid-July and 12,000 tons by August 1944.
Decision was made to favor the British forces under Sir Bernard Law Montgomery
Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, KG, GCB, DSO, PC , nicknamed "Monty" and the "Spartan General" was a British Army officer. He saw action in the First World War, when he was seriously wounded, and during the Second World War he commanded the 8th Army from...
by reducing the supplies to other forces, including Patton's. The unsuccessful Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden was an unsuccessful Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in the Second World War. It was the largest airborne operation up to that time....
launched by Montgomery soon after, however, resulted in the Allies' rapid advance stalling and allowed the Germans to reorganize and even counterattack (the Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive , launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name , and France and...
). By then, however, the port of Antwerp in Belgium was supplying the Allies.
After the war, the West German government paid reparations to civilians in Brest who had been killed, starved, or left homeless.
Considerations
If more supplies could have been delivered through intact French ports to British and American forces, the Allies could have potentially invaded the industrialized western part of GermanyNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
before the winter of 1944-45, bringing the Third Reich to an earlier collapse.
On the other hand, further developments in World War II indicated that the logistics of carrying supplies across France by land was also a great obstacle, due to insufficient numbers of trucks and the destruction of the railroad network (see Red Ball Express
Red Ball Express
The Red Ball Express was an enormous truck convoy system created by Allied forces to supply their forward-area combat units moving through Europe following the breakout from the D-Day beaches in Normandy. The term "Red Ball" was a railroad phrase referring to express shipping...
).
The delay in the invasion of Europe (postponed from 1943 to 1944 due to the lack of LCTs
Landing craft tank
The Landing Craft, Tank was an amphibious assault ship for landing tanks on beachheads. They were initially developed by the British Royal Navy and later by the United States Navy during World War II in a series of versions. Initially known as the "Tank Landing Craft" by the British, they later...
) had allowed the Germans time to reinforce their coastal defense system (known as the "Atlantic Wall
Atlantic Wall
The Atlantic Wall was an extensive system of coastal fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the western coast of Europe as a defense against an anticipated Allied invasion of the mainland continent from Great Britain.-History:On March 23, 1942 Führer Directive Number 40...
"). The ports' fortifications made the reality the soldiers found around them much different in 1944 than the one the planners foresaw back in 1942, when they believed these ports could be captured relatively intact and used accordingly.
"These Are My Credentials"
When U.S. Brigadier General Charles Canham arrived to accept his surrender, General Ramcke asked the lower-ranking man to show his credentials. Canham pointed to his nearby troops and said "These are my credentials". Canham was at the time the deputy commander of the U.S. 8th Infantry Division, and that phrase has become the division's motto.The reason Ramcke asked, was that he was stalling for time, as in one of the bunker rooms he had a radio operator frantically sending out his last report from Fortress Brest (which included a number of award recommendations). In the end he was able to keep the Americans busy long enough that they did not discover the radio room until the dispatch had been sent.